dstill, that the Doctor gave orders for the gardener to get the
assistance of a couple of labouring men, when the water was so much
lowered at the end of the next day that unless a great deal filtered in
during the coming night there was a fair prospect of the bottom being
reached before long.

By a tacit understanding with the Doctor, Glyn was excused from lessons
during the clearing out of the well, and spent his time watching the
emptying of every bucketful as it was wound slowly up; and it was put
about by Slegge that Glyn had been planted there by the Doctor to keep
the juniors off for fear any of them should tumble down.

It was an anxious task for the boy, who had to resist appeal after
appeal made by Singh to come and join him in some sport or go for a
walk. But Glyn kept fast to his post, watching in vain, and without
much hope, for if the case was there it would probably be sunk in the
mud. One hour he found himself full of faith in the belief that there
was something in his dream, and the next he thought that it was all
nonsense.

And so the days passed on, with Glyn paying constant visits to the
well-house, where Wrench went on toiling away; while, in spite of the
sloppiness of the place, his big tom-cat came regularly to perch himself
upon a shelf, and with his big eyes looking fierce and glowing in the
semi-darkness of the building, he seemed to look upon it as his duty to
see that all went on steadily and well.

The sixth day had come round, and the gardener reiterated with a grin,
as he stared grimly at Glyn, "Ah, we shan't be done yet. It's my
opinion that it will take a month; and that's what the ganger thinks
too."

"The ganger?" said Glyn. "Who's he?"

"Him," said Wrench, with a sidewise nod in the direction of his feline
favourite, who was crouched together in the spot he had selected for
looking on.

"Oh, nonsense!" cried Glyn.

"Ah, you may call it nonsense; but you know, Mr Severn, I shouldn't be
at all surprised if that cat thinks. It's my opinion that he knows
there's holes somewhere down below, just above where the water used to
be, and that sooner or later if he waits patiently he will see some of
them as lives there come up in the empty bucket for him to hunt."

"And what are they that live down there?" said Glyn.

"Rats, sir--rats."

There was some colour given to Slegge's assertion that Glyn was there to
keep the juniors from tumbling down; for the slow, steady lowering